MARYVILLE, Mo. — The other MIAA women’s basketball teams tried to hand Northwest Missouri State a ticket to this year’s conference postseason tournament. But coach Gene Steinmeyer’s team just couldn’t reach out with that one additional victory it took to give them a chance to defend their conference tournament title.

Thus, the Bearcats exited the 2008-09 campaign with a whimper, becoming the first team in MIAA history to plunge from tournament champions one season to out of the running the next. Southeast Missouri State won the title in 1991 but left the conference the next season in a move to Division I.

Steinmeyer could see signs early. After a season-opening victory at highly regarded South Dakota, the Bearcats lost to NAIA affiliate Evangel in their next outing.

“That should have sent up a red flag,” Steinmeyer said.

The longtime coach held out hope that his team could qualify for the MIAA tournament, but that hope seemed lost on Jan. 31 after his team lost a five-point decision at Fort Hays State.

“I was sure we weren’t going to make it in — and that was by the first of February — but the other schools made it possible for us to have hope. Every single time we had a loss, Truman, (Missouri) Western or Southwest Baptist lost and made it possible to keep hope,” Steinmeyer said.

But in the end, Northwest was just too weak defensively, too riddled by injuries and illnesses, to raise its hand and take the tournament ticket being offered.

“I even told my athletic director that on Sept. 1 we had the most talented bunch of kids I’ve ever had, and by Feb. 1 it was one of the weakest teams we’d ever put on the floor,” Steinmeyer said.

Hope remained even on the final day of conference play, when Northwest threw out enough junk defenses to be tied with Missouri Southern in the second half before things fell apart for the final time.

Steinmeyer hopes the recruiting season will eliminate the need for those junk defenses.

“We’ve got to have a point guard, and we’ve just got to get more athletic,” Steinmeyer said. “We weren’t athletic enough last year, and we had to play more zone defense than is my taste. The smoke and mirrors has got to end.”

But there is hope. Despite the loss of four-year standout Meghan Brue — an All-MIAA honorable mention selection in a rather inconsistent final season — and three other seniors, a potential star appears ready to emerge from the training room. Transfer point guard Vanessa Hutson was troubled with stress fractures and gave up the sport before seeing the court, but post Gentry Dietz, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament before the season began, is on the mend.

“Gentry Dietz was, by far, our best performer in preseason,” Steinmeyer said.

Dietz is expected to meld with four other recruits signed during last November’s early signing period. Olathe Northwest’s twin 6-foot-1 forwards Candace and Alexis Boeh, Emily Hauder of Bellevue, Neb., and Leah Day of Holton, Kan., all led their teams into their respective state tournaments.

Steinmeyer said one pleasant surprise from the 2009-09 season was the emergence of freshman guard Shelly Martin. Always a wing, she was pressed — reluctantly — into point guard duty when senior Amber Vandevender went out, first with an ankle injury and later with mononucleosis.

“Shelly Martin had an excellent freshman year that kind of got buried in a 9-18 record,” Steinmeyer said.

Sports reporter Rick Dunaway can be reached at rickd@npgco.com